Nobu Doha

Finally, after waiting for 4-5 years, I ate at Nobu Doha.
Yes, about 4-5 years ago, when I was in Qatar that time, it said that Nobu Doha would open soon, but till I was demobilized 2012, the restaurant still had not opened. There was a news that the project was cancelled.
Am happy that it finally opened, after I returned to Qatar again this time.

I knew Nobu-san from Japanese TV program called 情熱大陸, the program that tell the stories about great Japanese people to be proud of. Nobu-san left Japan and started his first restaurant in New York. Now he became famous internationally, and opened many restaurants over the world.

Nobu Doha is located literally on the say, in the edge of ferry pier, behind Four Season Hotel.
Though the price is expensive for my standard, since in Doha a lot of rich people, locals and high paid expats, when I was there it was full.

With 4 Japanese colleagues, avoiding choosing food from the big menu collection, we decided to take Omakase course. Omakase literally means "up-to-you" or "you choose for me". There are 2 omakase courses, QAR 450 and QAR 650, we took the cheaper one.
It was quite a volume, started with sushi, ended with 2 deserts.
What made unsatisfyingly expensive was the drink.
In Japan, any restaurants provide free hot tea or water, but here, they charged QAR 35 for a glass of green tea, and QAR 55-65 for a tea pot.
Would love to come back though.

http://www.noburestaurants.com/doha/experience-3/

Beautiful Spots from Movie Shankar's I

Watching Indian (Tamil) movie of Shankar's I, I was amazed by the beautiful locations appeared in the movie, mostly in China.
After a search in the internet, I listed below beautiful locations used in the movie.
1. Lexiaguo in Yunnan, China
2. Red Seabeach in Panjin, China
3. Li River in Guilin, China
4. Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, China
5. Huanglong in Sichuan, China
6. Jodhpur, the blue city in Rajakhstan, India

The movie poster

Huanglong

Guilin

Red Seabeach

Guilin

Lexiaguo

TEDx Summit in Doha, 16 April 2012

Attracted by huge advertisement in the city and huge curiousity (just saw Emirates commercial "Tomorrow rewards the curious" on the way), even though I didn't know what TED was, I bought a ticket to the opening session that opened to public in Katara Amphitheater tonight (was attracted to the awesame place also: the amphitheater).

I am glad I came, really.
TED is a non profit international organization that bring together ideas, not only related to Technology, Entertainment, and Design, but broader, and world wide. The idea is that people can get inspired by other people ideas by sharing. Their slogans are like "Ideas worth sharing" or "Ideas for Action", very inspiring.
The theater was full with people coming all the way for the 3 days symposium. The tickets were sold to Qatari public, and it was sold out.
I reached the theater late that I had difficulty to find a seat. Finally I found a seat next to TEDx organizer from Tunisia, and a group of Latinos, I guess from Argentina since one guy from the group was drinking Mate tea.

There were 10 speakers (there is a rule saying to get a new idea by 18 minutes, so that every speakers were limited to speak 18 minutes or less).

1. Raghava KK, an Indian artist
He was an energetic young artist, like a painter or graphic designer.
He introduced his idea to make a plan for 200 years. Not really clear for me.

2. William Noel, a rare book scholar from Baltimore, USA
His topic was a boring topic about how scholar find a way to read an ancient book.
However his idea about to spread the data was interesting.
He said that to keep a book in a good condition, you have to keep it well in a bookshelf, but to keep the data not to disappeared, you have to spread it.
So his institution always publicides their invention of manuscripts online.

3. Maz Jobrani, an Iranian American comedian
I  had no idea that an American comedian could be that funny, cause I couldn't laugh well when I watched western comedy, but this guy was really funny, that I laughed till tears dropped.
He made jokes on the Middle East like the tradition of kissing when people met.
Or about Qatar hosting World Cup 2022, he said he was sure that Qatar would win the game since it would be the only team could survive the June heat :) and he said every fan would be supplied with a fan in the stadium :)

4. Nesrin Ozalp, a researcher from Texas A&M University in Qatar
She explained about her research on solar cracking, using solar energy to crack methane into solid carbon and hydrogen gas. She explained it simple and easy to understand.
The research was funded by Qatar Foundation, she promoted.

5. Wolfgang Kessling, a physicist from Solartrans
This was interesting since the introduced the idea of air conditioning without air conditioner.
His company helped Qatar to win the World Cup 2022 bid, by introducing the technology in the bidding package. The same technology was also used in Masdar, the future city in Abu Dhabi.
I didn't understand the theory very well, but by introducing shade to sun and wind, he created a comfortable zone to humanbeing.

6. Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiya, a Qatari head of Food Security
He introduced the great technology of desalination, that change Qatar greatly from the country which was lack of water, to a country with the highest water consumption in the world.

7. Zain Awad, a Jordanian singer and pianist
A beautiful lady, not really special I think, like a singer in a club or restaurant.

8. Diana Laufenberg, a teacher from USA
She talked about success and failure, but I don't remember it well.

9. Yahay Aladeli, TEDx Baghdad
He was an Iraqi refugee holding Swedish passport now.
He held a successful TEDx in dangerous city of Baghdad, to inspire his people to build the country.

10. Hans Rosling, a global health expert.
He was said to be one the most popular speakers for TED.
Inded his talk was interesting.
His topic was about Babies and Religion.
He explained the statistic from 1960, showing countries with religion and the rate of babies per woman in each country.
In conclusion, he said there was no correlation between religion and number of babies.
But the factors that affect the number of babies were like:
- the likeliness for the children to be labour for the family
- level of education of women
etc.
He predicted that even the world population was largely increased to 7 billion in 2011, the world population would be stagnant at 10 billion, so he advised to plan everything for 10 billion people :)


It was fun and inspiring night!


余談ですが、I just know that even though the amphitheater architecture was awesome, the location was a mistake. Just realized tonight, every 10 minutes, airplanes passed above the sky with the elevation that we couldn't ignore the noise. No wonder not many events held in this beautiful theater... what a waste...

Japanese Drum - Irish Pub - The Woman In Black - Murakami Ego's Weekend

My Weekend in Qatar on 23-24 February 2012

The Japanese taiko (drum) performance by Eitetsu Hayashi and Fu-un no kai in Katara, Doha was really amazing. Though it was not first time for me to see the Japanese drum performance, but this was the best. Can't believe that Mr. Hayashi is 60 years old. The performance was exciting with full of variety of rhytm and movement by four young drummers belong to Fu-un no kai. There was also one Japanese flute soloist (though there was incident he was coughing during his performance). Great value for QAR 50 ticket. This even was brought by Japanese Embassy to celebrate Qatar-Japan 40 years relationship.
http://www.eitetsu.net/
素晴らしい和太鼓のパーフォーマンすをカタールで見れました。



After the drum show, Ms.YK dropped me to DZ apartment in The Pearl. After having a pre-party in the apartment, for the first time, I succeeded to enter Sheraton's Irish Pub. I have tried several times to enter this pub, but failed due to couple night policy. I even had made membership club before. Male had to pay QAR 100 (changeable for 2 drinks) for entrance. With Spanish speaking gang, I enjoyed the dancing in the pub with popular songs.

DZ kindly let me stay in his place in the Pearl and prepared a nice breakfast of mushroom omelet and Mexican bean. We decided to watch movie The Woman In Black, starred by Daniel Redcliff, the Harry Potter. DZ told me that it was originated from a play. It was a horror movie. DZ jumped of shock 4 times during the movie :)

After having an afternoon soup at Dean & Deluca with Mexican friends, we went to Murakami Ego's exhibition near Museum of Islamic Arts. This is another event to celebrate Qatar-Japan 40 years. I have never heard about Murakami until I met the Japanese students at the Wheel n Heal event on earlier this month. The exhibition is showing painting of cartoons, and characters created by Murakami, like Kiki and Kaikai, and Mr.DOB. Not only painting, but also figures of the characters. In the middle of the building, there was tent showing movies. Cute exhibition.







Valentine Run

Qatari government has decided from this year that second tuesdays in February to be National Sports Day, and it is a public holiday. There goes, while the world celebrated 14 February 2012 as Valentine Day, Qatar celebrated it as National Sports Day. Many events were conducted in Doha, and I joined one of the event QNB Mini Marathon in Aspire Park. It was a 3kms running, with the first price of QAR 20,000, the second QAR 15,000, the third QAR 10,000, 4th-20th QAR 2,000 for each category (5 categories: male, female, male under 18, female under 18, and handicapped.
As expected in many events held in Qatar, it was a mess event, though I enjoyed the running in the park, here are the list of mess:
1. They said that we had to register online to participate, but on the day, everybody could register on the day, that made such a large number of participants. Many passers-by just participated in-situ. I saw people wearing sandals running in the course with me. People with botton shirt and normal trousers. Even some people were bare feet (some might be in purpose).
2. The course were lined only by one line plastic baricades, but due to the large number of runner, and the runner bad manners, the baricades were damaged in many locations, and many bad morale runners just run short-cutting the course!
3. When we reached the final, we were supposed to get a number, might be used to be exchanged with certificate and souvenirs, but when I reached the final, the crowd was like attacking the guy who were supposed to hand-out the number, who was saying to the crowd that the number was "khalas". Then disappointed and desperate people attacking the tent where the certificates and souvenirs were supposed to be handed-over, and they took by themselves souvenirs and certificates like a riot. I saw many tried to grab as many QNB polo shirts as they could from the tent.

Whatever, Jay and I left the park and went to Villagio to have lunch. Jay chose TGI Friday and we ate Cajun Sause meal, which was terrible. The steak was hard chewed, the salad was too little. Their service was good, but the food was terrible!

I wanted to see Murakami exhibition, but since we were too tired, I just went to Rachid's place to have shower and took a rest.

With Miss YK and Miss KS, we decided to have dinner at supposedly newly open Japanese restaurant in Pearl Qatar, named Midori. But when we arrived there it was closed. Later, according to Natto Tsushin, it said that the gas was not ready. Since our Mexican fellow wanted to eat sushi, we went to Lwazar in Katara. I can say that their sushi was the best in Doha!
Another nice surprise to end the day, Miss KS gave Rachid and me Valentine chocolates! (as it is tradition in Japan for girls to give boys chocolates on Valentine Days, with the hope that the boys will give them back on White Days).



Saturday, 21 January 2012

got half day off on Saturdays...
happy got an achievement at work earlier in the morning... after lunch and gym, went to Doha with Jijili, the driver...
watching Underworld Awakening in Villagio IMAX (QAR 55), then watching Vienna Boys' Choir with Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (with Koyama-san playing fagotto) in Katara... reminded that classical music is not my thing :p
then had a nice chat over tea and humus with Koyama-san in the Armenian restaurant in Katara...
just another nice day  :)

Weekend 19-20 January 2012

what a nice day today here in Qatar, blue sky, white cloud, just-the-right temperature... one of days that reminds me to thank to life :) just finished nice lunch and gym at the camp... going to continue reading The Girl with Dragon Tattoo...
yesterday night, 久しぶりにwith Rachid and Airi went to club for dance... was rejected to enter W's Crystal, finally we ended up at Paloma - Lava @ Intercon, though the music was good, the crowd was not so nice looking?! ... QAR 40 for a beer, QAR 60 for a Metropolitan (nice cocktail first time I tried)... expensive, considering few days before I ate dinner at Indonesian restaurant Jakarta for QAR 18, and watching a movie costed QAR 35... (USD 1 = QAR 3.64)

One Friday in Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha

Went for the first time to Mathaf, arab museum of modern art, in Education City Doha... this Cai Guo-qiang's gun powder art exhibition was really cool! 

 Was with a long-time-no-see Polish friend, Mike in the museum, then cafe and shopped in Villagio (am weak with Sale things, bought many not-required thing for these past 2 weeks), then dinner with Rachid at Oasis (again for 3 consecutive weekends dinner at Oasis :))

Doha Tribeca Film Festival 25-29 October 2011

After skipping 2 times (I even applied for being a volunteer for previous 2 years) because both were conducted at the same time with my Home Leave, finally I was able to attend Doha Tribeca Film Festival this year.
Attending 3 consecutive days, 27-29 (Thursday - Saturday, benefitting from recent half-day working day on Saturdays) October 2011, the event was better than expected. The fat budget, made the festival looked wow, with the setting and everything.
I watched a documentary film titled "Mama Africa" on my first night, just  because I was interested with the concert by an African Diva named Angelique Kidjou. The movie was about the famous (though I never heard the name before) female singer named Miriam Makeba from South Africa. During Apartheid period, she was exiled in the US due to her appearance in a movie protesting government policy. She spoke at the United Nations requesting boikot to her country. I think she married to 3 men, from what I understood from the movie. I recognised couples of her songs (I didn't know the song and the singer before), including the most famous one was Pata Pata.
After the movie, before the main concert, there was an opening concert, by young African lady named Somi. I loved her song, voice and style. The songs were cool and somehow beautiful. After she sang 5 songs, finally the more famous and senior Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjou performed. Her songs were more dynamic and powerful, though I prefered the previous singer. I had to leave the concert soon since I had bought the ticket for other movie, so I left my friends Koyama-san and Nagisa (with her 2 more friends, Chiho and Maiko). Later I heard from Koyama that after I left, the concert became much more fun. I guessed the Pata Pata was performed.
The next movie I watched was titled Almanya, Welcome to Germany. It was about a Turkish Immigrant with his family in Germany. It was warm and funny. About family ties, about Turkish and Germany cultures. My impression after watching the movie was Germany was such a good country, they treated the immigrants and their families well, not like Qatar. They were well paid that they could afford their family life in Germany. In Qatar, though they treated high level, especially western expats well, but what I saw, the treatment to low level expats from Asian not well. The salary of a lowest worker in a construction site or a cleaner was QAR 600 or less than USD 200 per month with almost no welfare and they got holiday only once every 2 years.
The next day, not part of the festival, I watched in City Center, a Bollywood super hero movie, titled Ra-One in 3D. I was excited about the movie because I think it was the first Indian super hero movie made in 3D. However, I was shocked when the movie started, knowing that there was no English subtitle, realizing that the audience were all Indian, except me! So all the time, I had to guess what was happening. Fortunately it was not too difficult to understand the movie, since it was an action super hero movie. Owh how I loved the glamorous, powerful dances and the songs in Bollywood movies.
I rushed taking the free shuttle from City Center to Katara, to watch the program short movies titled "Made in Qatar". I was looking forward to watch the performance of my friend Jay in a Filipino short movie titled I love You Ma'am. Surprised I saw my other Filipino friend Mark too. I also found my other friend Sam, in the volunteer extra movie. The movie was nice about love between Chinese Filipino teacher and his student. Two things I didn't like about the castings. One was the main actor, the hero was using teeth wire like Ugly Betty, which I considered very ugly. There was special purpose, I guess, for casting the actor with the wire for the hero, an Chinese Filipino teacher, except that to show that wearing teeth wire was popular amongst Filipino (as I saw in Qatar). The other was too many femininine actors they used as school teachers and staff. While the Filipino movie was OK, most of other Qatari shorts were not even worth to watch, especially the animated ones made by a Qatar-based university. Other down side was the English subtitle character was too small to read.
I rushed again after the Filipino movie finished, not waiting till all the shorts were displayed, to the documentary about comic fans at Comic Con, an comic conference held in San Diego few years ago. The film was chasing the stories of several different people related to comic, i.e. two new comic painters, one comic publisher, one costume designer, and one lover couple of comic fans.
On Saturday afternoon, using the half day working day, I went to Doha again. Failing getting the ticket for Lebanese movie "Where Do We Go Now?" by famous Lebanese Director Nadine Labaki, the director of other famous movie "Caramel", I decided to go to Villaggio to watch non-related-to the festival, a dancing movie titled "Footloose". The film was a remake from 80's popular movie titled the same. Oh how I loved the movie. The actor and the heroine were so cute and cool.
I rushed my driver to take me to Katara to watch Japanese Short Movies program. Arrived there 1 hour after the planned start time, I was able to watch 3 out of 7 short movies. That 3rd movie was about solar eclipse, a father and a son. The 4th movie was a very funny one, titled Sushi Japan. The next one was about Global Warming, titled "Sauna". And the last one was about Korean lovers in Enoshima. Much much worth to watch than the Qatari ones.
For the last movie, I planned to watch a movie called "Chinese Take Away", about a Chinese immigrant in Argentine, but I changed to the main closing movie titled "The Lady" about Burmese Nobel Price Winner, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, starred by Michelle Yeoh, directed by Luc Besson after I heard that there was a concert after the movie. Though the movie was moved for many people, I was not that moved, though I admitted that it was a good movie, and may won an Oscar. The show was late about 1 hour, then there were several speeches and award ceremony ("Comic Con" and "Where Do We Go Now?" won the prizes for documentary and narrative respectively), that I decided to give up the concert and went back to Ras Laffan.
I loved Qatar being able to hold such a good event, but I guess Qatar has to learn a lot to be on time to hold international events...

Angelique Kidjo, the concert after "Mama Africa"

the Red Carpet

events

Nadine Labaki, the director of "Where Do We Go Now?" won the prize

Luc Besson and Michelle Yeoh, the director and the actress of movie "The Lady" at closing movie



Weekend 13-14 November 2011 in Doha

Venezuelan Music Show at Katara's Latin American Festival with Miki and Watanabe (nice latin music performance) --> drink with Yanis and his nice wife at Pearl's Tse Yang --> Doha Park (they brought old time amusement park from Italy) --> Arnold's blasting birthday party (with nice band and lots of beautiful people) --> World Club Volley Ball Championship at Aspire (Brazil vs Poland) --> movie Real Steel (loved it much!!! well done extremely cool movie) --> dinner at Paul --> back to Ras Laffan camp... i think Qatar is not bad! :p

Doha Park, this ride would be too scary for me!

Arnold's Birthday Party!

Venezuelan band in Latin American Festival in Katara, Doha

World Club Volley Ball Championship at Aspire, Doha



Around Qatar in One Day

Last Friday, with 16 colleague, we went half north Qatar: Ras Laffan --> Al Ghariya (beach) --> Al Ruwais (port) --> Al Zubairah (fort) --> Dukhan (beach for swimming and lunch) --> Al Shahaneeya (camel race track) --> Doha.
Have farewell dinner with Ryoko-chan, and Yuko-chan, then on the way back to Ras Laffan, we saw the fireworks from the bus.



Dancing on the Sea 15 July 2011

For the second time, I arranged a Dhow trip with young colleague, this year, the participant number was 44 persons, mostly the freshmen.
Same like last year, we made BBQ on the boat and jumped to the sea for swimming.
We also performed Jai ho dance on the boat.

For pictures click here....

Dancing in the Desert

Danced Jai Ho with young new colleagues on 8 July 2011, Inland Sea Qatar.

Having joining Desert Safari for many times, this time, I tried to make it different with Dancing in the Desert.
With support of 24 new colleague, we practiced the dance twice in our camp, and we performed once in Oasis Club Chinese Restaurant, but the desert was our main performance.
Hope this would be a good memory for all of us! Jai Ho! :)

Birthday 2011

Asked Harry, Jay, and Rudy for dinner cause I didn't want to eat alone on my birthday, the party increased to the final amount of 15 persons after I decided to mix-up with our new employees and QR girls at Oasis Club Chinese Restaurant, my favorite restaurant in Doha.
I didn't expect that Jay and Chiho/Asami-chan would bring cakes for me, that it was a nice surprise. And everybody sang the birthday song and I blew up the candles.... so long time didn't do this kind of birthday... :)
Even the singer sang the birthday song for me...
Thanks all! Had a great one this year!

more pictures...

Leaving the Project I Have Been Working for 6 Years

Today was my last day in QCS Project.

I joined the project, before the bidding, in June 2005. I remember that time, I was in a construction site in Indonesian jungle in Sumatra, my boss called me from Japan, instructed me to return to home office soon to join the newly started project, our company third large LNG project in Qatar.

End of 2005, we were awarded the project to build 2 of the 6 largest LNG plants in the world. After working at engineering stage in Yokohama, my boss took me with him to construction site in Qatar. Since then I had been working with my boss, till his demobilization on 10 January 2011, then I earned the manager title for the first time.

In 2005, there were only papers, then early 2006, excavation was started. Building of foundations, erection of large equipments, then installation of piping and instrumentation. After lots of struggle with many things, including our subcontractors and our client, finally we managed to hand over the plants in 2010. Now the plants are running, producing LNG, being exported to several countries, contributing million of dollars to our client and to Qatari people.

Since it was a joint venture between Japanese and French companies, I worked with a lot of Japanese and French people. It was said that more than 60 nationalities were involved, and during peak times, there were more than 30,000 employee involved in the project.
Thanks to this project, besides technical experiences, I got experience to interact with so many different people from different background.

Living in Qatar for 4 years 7 months already!
Living in a camp in the industrial area, far from the city!
As I described in previous blog about camp life, it was really not bad.
Good Japanese and Western food is provided, there are cleaning and laundry service.
Sports facilities such as gym, swimming pool, tennis court, pingpong etc.

Thanks to company policy, allowing us to take 3 times 2 weeks holiday in a year. And thanks to the policy to provide the flight ticket budget, I managed to go to many countries in Africa, Middle East, Europe, North and South America, increased the number of countries I visited to 63 countries.

2 weeks ago, my boss came to site, and requested me to go to other project in the same area in Ras Laffan. Though I heard a lot of ugly things about that project, I decided to go, in order to get other site experience. I requested my boss to give me 1 month vacation before joining the project.

Here I am, waiting for my flight in several hours, starting my first 1 month travel, the longest traveling I have ever started. Going to the west, started in south Italy to visit a friend and to see the blue cave in Capri Island. Then crossing the Atlantic, stop over in Chicago to watch Usher concert, then fly to Las Vegas, to see my brother and sister, and watch Glee and Kylie concerts. Then will go south to Mexico. From there, I will also go to Cuba. Then will stop a few day to visit Krakow in Poland before returning to Qatar.

Here I go...

Tribute to Miss Isabel

Miss Isabel...

that's the name you chose before we went to Rio

David Guetta, Intercontinental Beach, Oct.2010

Birthday Party, July 2007

Looking for desert rose, 2007

Diplomatic Club, 2009

Rio, Feb.2010

Yeah, we went together to the Rio Carnival in 2010 with Mo and Ju...

We did a lot of things together since we firstly met in end of 2006 in Doha...

We had breakfast together with A-chan and my two other friends, Tak and Mat... in Le Notre

Yeah, we have been friends for more than 4 years since then...

Now that you are leaving Qatar soon...

It is time to say good bye... 

with hope to see each other again sometime somewhere...

Thank you for being a such good friend...

thank you for being a sister for me here in Qatar... with your many advises...

you were my shoulder to cry on when I was sad and depressed

You are so funny

with your "tennen boke"

your tsukkomi

your stories

bout your volley ball club, tibet, bollywood movie

bout cuba, bout your flights...

 

Thanks for being an oasis in this country

we had lots nice dinners

some clubbing and dancing nights....

With you, I could do lots of thing that nobody would do...

like dance exercise at the Aspire Park... :p

I am glad you had found your life partner

a nice one

and am glad I contributed somehow in your encounter with your love

Meeting you was one of greatest encounter in my life

i really hope the best for you from deep in my heart

and will always "ouen" from far

we may now say good bye because we won't meet in Qatar again

but we will keep in touch through the net

and we will get back together in Doha in 2022 with Mo and Ju...

bon voyage mon amie!

Momo Farewell, 2010

Camp Life

Since arrived in Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, I have been living in 3 camps:
1. RLC Camp: 11 October 2006 - 27 May 2007
2. QCS Camp: 27 May 2007 - 25 March 2011 (broken heart day)
3. PMP Camp: 25 March 2011 to date

In brief, camp is not like many people imagined "camp", since it is not a tent. But it can be imagined like, temporary dormitory, or even hotel. The facilities are quite satisfactory. Meals are provided 3 times a day, all you can eat style, with desert. Cleaning is done everyday. Laundry service is available. All for free. A small store to buy snack or softdrink is also there. Also bar to drink alcohol. As other standard facility is sports facility, like gym, swimming pool, tennis court, basket ball, volley ball court. A barber shop, ping pong and billiard, sometimes video rental and library, TV and video room.

The first camp, the RLC Camp, was a very old camp, built already more than 10 years that time I lived. Lived in a room that was like cottage of 2 rooms together. About 3 x 3 meters plus small bathroom+toilet. Since there was no heater, it was quite cold during winter, despite of Qatar.
The best thing about this camp was the Japanese mess hall, served on the table! It was quite delicious, though the volume was extremely enormous. I had to leave some food untouched each time. The other good thing was karaoke room. Our Business Manager was a karaoke mania :)

The second camp, was my own project camp, the completion was 1 year delayed. It was quite nice camp, two story building. The mess hall was quite a satisfactory, with Japanese and Western (French) food, buffet style. I lived in a room called Type C, a single room with bathroom+toilet inside. Later on, in September 2010, my room was upgraded to Type B, much bigger room with living room and small kitchen (without cooking facility). Since my project was almost completed beginning 2011 and the remaining staff was a few, this camp was demolished to save operating cost. A bit sad would not be able to have my hair cut with my favorite Nepali barber.

The remaining staff, moved to the third camp. It was belong to other project managed by our French partner. At first, I was not happy with this camp, since the room was smaller and there was less furniture in the room, in addition to the day I moved to this camp, was the day of my broken heart. But I became to like this camp. The gym was nicer, better music and bigger space, newer equipment and nicer gym keeper. The mess hall was better since in the same big room, there were Indian and Filipino mess hall, that I could go to take Indian and Filipino food if I wanted. The downside of this camp was the location, far from the main gate, that it made farther to go to the city Doha.

More than 4.5 years in camp life, it was quite an easy life, since everything was provided, food, cleaning, laundry for free. I am a bit afraid going back to my previous living in back toJapan, where I have to do everything, food, cleaning, laundry myself, and I have to spend money on everything... owh... gonna miss this camp life.

Planned to leave the project end of May 2011, thus leaving this easy camp life...

Australia v Uzbekistan

Australia won an easy game of 6-0!!!
Went with my South African colleague, tonite's game was the most peaceful and quite games I watched during this Asian Cup.
Was a nice evening going out with a nice colleague.

日本大使館での新年祝賀会

今日、在カタール日本大使館での新年祝賀会が開かれ、初めて参加した。
どんな感じの会かと興味津々で参加してみた。
日本人じゃないのに参加してもいいのかと、心配してたけど、誰でも参加オーケーだったみたい。
庭パーティだったけど、あげ立ての天ぷらや寿司やってました。
日本サッカーチームを期待してたけど、監督さんだけ挨拶にきた。
最初は会社の人たちだけと集まって、輪を広げる機会を逃す心配してたけど、サッカーの応援で一緒にしてた人と会い、ちょっとだけ輪を広げることができて、ちょっとだけ満足～

面白かったのは、うちのプロジェクトディレクターが間違って、隣のフランス大使館に入ったらしく、応接間まで案内され、コーヒーまで出された。パーティの気配はないなと疑って聞いたら、日本大使館じゃないと知らされて気づいたらしい。さすがプロジェクトディレクター！

手錠の初体験

昨日の2011年1月22日（土）、韓国対イランの試合に見に行こうとして、チケット2枚をネットで買った。しかしその日に、10人以上の知り合いに声かけても一緒に見に行ってくれる人が見つからなくて、一人で行くことにした。
試合開始20分ん前の19時ぐらいに、スタジアムの前に、「Need ticket」という紙をもって立ってた人に、（あとでサッカーみに来た日本人観光者とわかった）あまった一枚を買った値段で売ろうとしたら、急に警備員が来て、チケットとその日本人が払おうとした現金20リアール（500円）をとって我々二人捕まった。
スタジアム中に連れられて、何人かの警備に囲まれて、「チケットの売買したね」と言われて待機させられた。チケットの売買が罪であることは知らなかった僕とその日本人は漠然とした。
そのあとに、一人の余裕そうな顔した警察官が来て、僕の片手とその日本人の片手に一つの手錠をかけて、パトーカーに連れ込んだ。手錠の初体験だ！
待たされて待たされて、別の車に移された。
その車にすでに一人の韓国人が同じ罪の疑いで、手錠かけられて中にいた。
彼に聞いたら、彼も売ろうとしなかったけど、警備員が来てチケットの売買の疑いをして彼が反抗したので、捕まったらしい。
またに待たされて、捕まってから1時間ぐらいたったら、車が走り出して、警察署みたいなところに連れられた。警察署ぽくないけど、その所に白い民族衣装来てた警察官が10人ぐらい暇そうにいた。
事情聴取が始まった。
英語が分からない警察が事情聴取したので、隣に英語の分かる優しそうな警察官が翻訳してくれた。アラビア語で手で紙にインタビューしながら書いてた。
チケット2枚買って、友達がいけなくなったから、チケットがいるといった人に買った値段で売ろうと説明した。それは罪であることは分からなかったといった。
仕事や給料など、いろいろ質問された。
結局最後まで罪かどうかわからずに解放された～
ただ運が悪かっただけなのか～
一緒に捕まった日本人は友達や大使館の人にいろいろ電話したけど、僕は誰にも連絡せずにぼっと黙ってた。
会社の人や友達に連絡しても結局心配や迷惑をかけるだけだと思った。
日本の大使館は面倒いいかもしれないけど、インドネシアの大使館はそこまで面倒みてくれないだろう。
終わった後に、やはり漠然として、ドライバーを呼んで家に帰った。
英国にいる片思いの友達に電話しても出なくてさみしかった～
意味のある出来事なのか～
神のしるしかのか、試練なのか～
今でもわからない～
次の日に、日本大使館からのメールマガジンが回った：


サッカーアジアカップのチケット購入に際しての注意事項

現在ドーハで開催されているサッカーアジアカップのチケット購入に伴うトラブ
ルが発生したところ，在留邦人の皆様におかれましてはこのよう事案に遭遇しない
よう十分ご注意願います。

１．１月２２日（土）カタールスポーツクラブで行われた韓国対イラン戦を観戦し
ようとした邦人旅行者がカタールスポーツクラブ付近の路上で外国人からチケット
を購入するため，現金を支払ったところ，当地警察官に職務質問を受け，一時拘束
されるという事案が発生しました。

２．上記邦人旅行者は調書を取られた後釈放されましたが，今後の試合観戦に際し
てチケットを購入する場合は，以下の点についてご注意下さい。

（１）チケットは必ず指定されたチケット販売ブースで購入するようにして下さ
い。

（２）違法な販売を行う業者（個人）（いわゆるダフ屋）からはチケットを絶対に
購入しないで下さい。

（３）路上等では誤解を招く恐れがありますので，チケットと現金の受け渡しは行
わないようにご注意下さい。